Playing a sport in college, honestly, feels like playing fruit ninja with a butter knife. There are watermelons and cantaloupes being flung at you from all different directions, while you’re trying to defend yourself using one of those flimsy cafeteria knives that can’t even seem to spread room-temperature butter.”

Cailin Bracken, Vanderbilt lacrosse player

Today, science-backed solutions can help coaches and staff members in intercollegiate athletics make the necessary adjustments to better support each other and student athletes. We believe it is time to focus on the individuals in ways that help elevate everyone, optimize relationships, and avoid crises due to mental health issues.

Mental health is an extremely prevalent issue in all areas of life, but in student athletics specifically it has been a primary concern in recent years. Many student athletes have suffered in different capacities from this issue, and some lives have even been lost. This is not only devastating for those families and individuals, but for everyone in the athletic community.

While there is no sure fix to this problem, any step towards a solution is an admirable one. Awareness of mental health resources could help the well-being of student athletes everywhere…transcending their lives on and off the field. At SureAthlete, we’re taking these necessary steps and facing this issue in a new light.

Coaches and staff members are faced with many challenges. One major issue is trouble relating to and understanding student athletes. This prevents the development of relationships built on trust, which leads to a breakdown in communication and a lack of awareness of potential underlying mental health issues.

SureAthlete is addressing these issues through the power of people science with individual-first solutions designed for coaches, staff, and student athletes. Through Prism Analytics we can help build stronger relationships and improve self-awareness to preemptively stunt mental health issues before they arise.

While we know our remedies won’t solve everything, their potential to create any level of positive change in the athletic mental health landscape is something to be excited about.